Skip to main content
Topic: New forum theme (Read 7065 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

New forum theme

A new forum theme named Artix, created and curated by @corysanin, is available at the 'Look and Layout' section of user account settings. It shall become the default theme of the forum after a reasonable amount of testing and feedback. Please, use this thread for comments and suggestions. The current default theme (Silence) will of course remain available.

Re: New forum theme

Reply #1
It's alright.

Re: New forum theme

Reply #2
It's easier to read and more crispy, I like it!

However, the side buttons on the left (which were almost invisible in the old theme) seem out of place. I think they disturb the balance a bit: there's some space taken up on the left side but non on the right. Personally, I'll just remove them using uBlock for now but it will be interesting to see if anyone uses those buttons/arrows. Maybe it makes sense to remove them completely?

Also, in the CSS, there's a :focus target on ".sceditor-container textarea, .sceditor-container textarea" which makes the message box (which I'm currently typing in) increase the font size to 1em. It's pretty confusing since the text jumps when you try focusing on it, making the position of the cursor weird. Since this wasn't a thing in the old theme, I'd suggest removing the :focus target and just making the font 1em. (by the way, related thread: https://forum.artixlinux.org/index.php/topic,7786.0.html)

But overall, the new theme is wonderful! Thanks, devs :)

 

Re: New forum theme

Reply #3
I like it a lot. It's easier to read overall and makes it easier to see where things are and less confusing than the old default. Also makes use of the screen space which is practical and efficient. Many thanks @corysanin  :)

Re: New forum theme

Reply #4
IMHO

I don't like it! Neither the new theme nor the old one, all other theme on the elkarte platform are physically painful to look at!

Here is an example of how a forum not on the elkarte platform might look:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250515135514/https://archlinux.org.ru/forum/

Re: New forum theme

Reply #5
I don't normally like change, as I'm just an ancient guy who is resistant to change.  :)

However, I quite like the new theme, and will test it for a while to see how it goes.

Many thanks @corysanin .

Re: New forum theme

Reply #6
I like the readability improvements. There are some things that needs improvements like contrast and consistency, but overall it's heading in a good direction.





1st (marked in purple). For the light variant.
I can barely read it in the light/white version. Darken it more please.

2nd (marked in red). For the light variant.
The colors for the normal users seems blend in the background. Either it needs more chroma(less gray-ish/lack in color) or more chroma with lower lightness(making it dark blue).

3rd (marked in orange) For the dark variant.
It's less readable in the dark variant. Make it a bit lighter.

Re: New forum theme

Reply #7
Thanks everyone for the feedback, the good and the bad! I really appreciate it! I incorporated some of the feedback into a new release.

the side buttons on the left (which were almost invisible in the old theme) seem out of place. I think they disturb the balance a bit: there's some space taken up on the left side but non on the right. Personally, I'll just remove them using uBlock for now but it will be interesting to see if anyone uses those buttons/arrows. Maybe it makes sense to remove them completely?

I find that they're a tad less bothersome when the wrapper width is less than 100%. On that note...

Also makes use of the screen space which is practical and efficient. Many thanks @corysanin  :)

I was surprised by this. I've been using a local ElkArte instance for testing and the width of the wrapper elements was wider than the current default theme but not as wide as it is here on the prod site. Come to find out there's actually a setting in the admin panel to adjust the wrapper width. For whatever reason the other theme didn't respect this setting. The new one does. The 100% width set here is a bit wide for my taste. 90%-95% is probably the sweet spot, in my opinion.


Also, in the CSS, there's a :focus target on ".sceditor-container textarea, .sceditor-container textarea" which makes the message box (which I'm currently typing in) increase the font size to 1em. It's pretty confusing since the text jumps when you try focusing on it, making the position of the cursor weird. Since this wasn't a thing in the old theme, I'd suggest removing the :hover target and just making the font 1em. (by the way, related thread: https://forum.artixlinux.org/index.php/topic,7786.0.html)

Thank you for pointing that out, I believe I addressed this in the latest release.

IMHO

I don't like it! Neither the new theme nor the old one, all other theme on the elkarte platform are physically painful to look at!

Here is an example of how a forum not on the elkarte platform might look:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250515135514/https://archlinux.org.ru/forum/

None of the minimalist themes out there do it for you either? I know it's hard to get a good look at them with many demo links being busted.

1st (marked in purple). For the light variant.
I can barely read it in the light/white version. Darken it more please.

2nd (marked in red). For the light variant.
The colors for the normal users seems blend in the background. Either it needs more chroma(less gray-ish/lack in color) or more chroma with lower lightness(making it dark blue).

3rd (marked in orange) For the dark variant.
It's less readable in the dark variant. Make it a bit lighter.

I incorporated all your feedback into the latest iteration. In particular I used a more saturated color for the primary color palette in the light theme.

The changes will go live when nous has a chance to pull from my repo.

Re: New forum theme

Reply #8
I tried it but prefer the original Silence. This wouldn't be a problem as that theme is still available, but it seems the forum will only show your chosen theme when you are logged in. So if you just go to the site without being logged in, you get the default theme and not what you previously selected. Many websites will save that kind of info in a cookie, but it doesn't seem to be happening here. There is also apparently no way for people without an account to set a display preference, as it appears under account settings.

Re: New forum theme

Reply #9
I tried it but prefer the original Silence. This wouldn't be a problem as that theme is still available, but it seems the forum will only show your chosen theme when you are logged in. So if you just go to the site without being logged in, you get the default theme and not what you previously selected. Many websites will save that kind of info in a cookie, but it doesn't seem to be happening here. There is also apparently no way for people without an account to set a display preference, as it appears under account settings.

Bookmark https://forum.artixlinux.org/index.php?theme=9

Re: New forum theme

Reply #10
Thanks @corysanin.
Few things that I missed:





On the light variant:
Marked in red: Needs to be darken, like the previous issue.
Marked in Teal/Aqua: There are black bars blocking out the percentages in the poll.

On the dark variant:
Marked in red: needs just a very little tiny bit of lightness increase.

On both variants:
Marked in purple: View results button sits on top of the thread page numbers.

References:
Poll: https://forum.artixlinux.org/index.php/topic,829.0/
Sub-thread page: https://forum.artixlinux.org/index.php/board,11.0.html

Re: New forum theme

Reply #11
Thanks @corysanin.
Few things that I missed:

On the light variant:
Marked in red: Needs to be darken, like the previous issue.
Marked in Teal/Aqua: There are black bars blocking out the percentages in the poll.

On the dark variant:
Marked in red: needs just a very little tiny bit of lightness increase.

Fixes for these will be included in the next pull from git.

On both variants:
Marked in purple: View results button sits on top of the thread page numbers.

I'm not seeing this on my end. Anyone else?

Re: New forum theme

Reply #12
Quote
None of the minimalist themes out there do it for you either? I know it's hard to get a good look at them with many demo links being busted.

I'm gonna go build my own theme, with blackjack and *******!



Re: New forum theme

Reply #14
yee gad!  Is someone bored and has too much time on their hands.